Malencia Vale
Malencia "Cia" Vale is the main protagonist of the Testing Trilogy. Early Life Malencia Vale was born in Five Lakes Colony as the fifth child and first daughter of her parents. She grew up there along with her parents, and older brothers, Zeen, Hamin, Hart, and Win. Cia's parents enrolled her in school a year early and she met her best friend Daileen at age three. She was also acquainted with Tomas Endress, whom she found handsome, but as they got older she drifted away from him. She always dreamed of being chosen for The Testing and being able to attend the University like her father. Before The Testing Cia is the youngest student in her Graduation group at the age of sixteen. Because of her age, she was always afraid of failure, despite being ahead of all of her peers. She attends the Testing with 3 other Five Lakes students: Tomas Endress, Zandri Hicks, and Malachi Rourke. On her Graduation Day, her friend Daileen tells Malencia that she heard through her father rumors of a Tosu Official coming into town. Malencia acknowledges that every year there are rumors of an official coming in, but there hasn't been one since the last magistrate died three years ago. Nevertheless, this spikes up her hope of being chosen for The Testing, only to have her dreams crushed when no official shows up. The same night, while she was at the colony's center, she is called to meet Michal, the awaited Tosu City official. He was made late by an incident with his skimmer. He tells her that she has been selected for the Testing and that she would leave the following morning. He gives her a bag and instructs her on what she should and can bring in it. Zandri asks if she can choose not to go. Michal responds that choosing not to show up to The Testing would be considered treason, and the most common punishment for treason is death. He adds that they haven't had to enforce that law on anyone yet and that the government is deciding on modifying or taking it out soon. Heading home to her graduation party, Malencia is overjoyed, however, this feeling isn't shared with her father. Her father tells her of the dreams or bits of memory he has of The Testing before she leaves, telling her how we remembered a white room with red, and seeing some of his peers die in front of him. Otherwise, he doesn't remember most of what happened during the test. He also attempts to dismiss this as a possible random nightmare he made up himself to cope, but both Cia and he know deep down it wasn't He also informs her that the magistrate has also had the same kinds of nightmares and that he hasn't seen his family ever since he entered the test. His parents were paid with a bit of money and he's never returned home since. Because of that, Cia changes the things she was allowed to take with her. She took two changes of comfortable clothes that allowed her to move freely (unlike most of the other girls, who brought frilly, pretty dresses), an old pair of boots that used to belong to one of her brothers, a multiple task knife, and Zeen's transmitter (Cia felt bad about not asking him first but she knew he would understand). Then The mysterious boy named Jack B Fixed all the spelling errors in this story. During The Testing Ryme's Death Arc When entering the Testing she becomes roommates with Ryme Reynald from Dixon Colony of whom she has suspicions about, due to Ryme offering her corncakes, yet not eating one within three days. After a portion of the first test is complete, Ryme and Cia get in a heated moment in which Ryme coldly states in a sickly sweet fashion that Cia is going to go home. Cia lashes out in anger and then apologizes, but Ryme only responds by saying she's okay with it since all the inferior girls at her school used to do that. This angers Cia. During dinner, she complains to her group about how long the test was and how she wasn't able to finish, in hopes of lightening spirits. A pair of twins overhear them and decide to join the conversation, introducing themselves as Will and Gill Donovan from Madison Colony. They become friends and discuss their colonies and their family. Will and Gill confess they come from a colony that doesn't have much food, as Cia can tell by their slender build and their unhealthy looking skin. Cia remembers her father had been to Madison Colony before and that something there had been killing their crops. Cia is then called up and informed that the corncake girl had hung herself in the room. She is then coaxed into telling Barnes everything she knew about Ryme and what had happened before that could have caused such an incident. Barnes dismisses her entire death as a mundane event and says that some students simply cannot handle the stress. Some can't eat, some can't sleep, and Ryme chose to take her own life. Cia is horrified in how easy it is for him to talk about these things, and she is relocated to another room while her ex-roommate's body is being cut from the ceiling. She has no roommate and the officials offer her to ask for one, but she decides that would show weakness and says she doesn't need one. While in her new room, she spots a camera watching her and wonders if it's because Ryme killed herself, but then doubts it and concludes that there was probably a camera in every single room. This leads her to the chilling conclusion that someone had watched Ryme debate on how to kill herself, and eventually do, and that they had done nothing to prevent or stop it. A little after the first test is complete, Cia hangs out with her friends outside in the area they're allowed to be in. Here, she spots a fountain and repairs it with the help of Tomas. Before heading in, she decides to switch off the fountain and conserve water. Second Test The second test involves more hands-on activities. Wrong answers during this part of the test will be penalized. If one does not know the answer to a question, they are to ignore it. Candidates are given a couple of plants in which they need to determine which are poisonous and which are not. Cia decides not to take her chances with plants she can't identify and use her knowledge from back home, she separates her group. When they are all done, the poisonous group is taken away and the candidates are forced to eat a bit of the different plants they deemed safe. The next test is to repair a Pulse radio. Since Cia has a knack for mechanics and has repaired one in the past before, she quickly finishes while noticing a little black box that hadn't been there before. Taking a lesson from the consequences of the first part, she decides not to mess with it and hopes her friends won't either. However, Malachi does and gets stabbed in the eye with a nail and left to bleed out on the floor and die. The next part is to determine which soils are contaminated with radiation. Four more test boxes after this one require the answer to complex mathematical equations to be entered in. Cia only finishes half of them and is glad to not have guessed as the boy in front of her gets electrocuted. They're then asked to examine objects under what Cia assumes is a rigged microscope, build a solar power converter (which causes a girl to lose the tip of her finger), and to purify water with chemicals provided (and then drink them). Will is looking sick, and those who feel sick are asked to head up and be taken for treatment. However, people who were don't return and Cia keeps Will from going for help. Instead, she recommends him to eat more and wait it out. Third Test Candidates are placed into groups of five and one group of four and must work together in order to solve questions. The candidates have some time to get to know one another and evaluate one another's strengths and weaknesses before choosing the order in which they will answer questions based on that evaluation. Punishment will only be brought upon people who answer a question that has already been answered. Cia is grouped with Annalise, Roman, and Brick. Somewhere into the test, Cia realizes that something is wrong and checks their practice books and realizes that Roman had set them into a trap and since he went first, he intended on answering someone else's question and eliminating them. Cia shares the information she learned with Brick who's hesitant to believe her. Cia chooses not to do her question and later finds out that Annalise was eliminated because of Roman. Final Test In the last stage of the test, candidates will be randomly dropped off in a designated foreign area in which they must make their way back to Tosu City. Tomas tells Cia before they are separated to meet him at the tallest building she can see or find him at a specific fence. Personality Repeatedly, Cia is told that no one deserves her love and trust, especially Tomas. Raised into a peaceful mindset and home where innovation and humanity are cherished, Cia is against violence and therefore hates the savagery of The Testing. Throughout the test, she learns not to trust as easily, yet still clings onto a bit of her humanity and personality by offering Will to stay with them, taking care of her friends, bringing Tomas with her across the finish line, and allowing some passing-by candidates during the last test to eat with them. References Category:Main Characters Category:Testing Candidates Category:Females Category:Characters